Facebook developer scam (sorry, scheme)
p2pnet news view | Advertising:- Facebook isn’t having much luck converting members into zillions of advertising dollars, but it may have found another way to earn a buck or two.
“Verifying Applications – a New Program Begins,” says Sandra Liu Huang on Facebook developers.
It’s Facebook’s plan to winkle cash out of third party developers, using its hoary old “it’s in users’ interests” excuse.
But, “There’s a word for this kind of system,” says Michael Arrington on TechCrunch.
“Oh yeah. Protection Racket.”
“As members of the Facebook Platform developer community, many of you spend a lot of time thinking about how to create new social experiences that are valuable to users,” posts Sandra, going on »»»
That’s why we’re opening registration today for our Application Verification program — an optional new program designed to provide your applications with a way to stand out and reassure users that they will provide a good experience.
Badges for verified applications will appear to users early next year, beginning in an application’s About Page and the Application Directory. We’ll do our part to help educate users to recognize the verification badge as a symbol for applications that are respectful, transparent and meet the guiding principles for trustworthiness. In addition, users will see more information from verified applications as we increase their allocations for communication channels such as requests and notifications, and increase visibility of their stories in News Feed.
Then comes the punch line.
It’ll cost developers $375 to be ‘verified’.
Students and registered non-profits get a discounted per application fee of $175 — but only if they have, and can provide, “official documentation”.
Says Arrington:
“I just wish Facebook put as much effort into launching their payments platform as they did on the new verification system. Because then app developers could start charging for apps like they do quite successfully on the iPhone, and make some of this money back.
“And just one last thought – if an application isn’t meaningful, trustworthy and well designed, why is it in the app store at all?”
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advertising dollars – Latest Facebook advertising ploy, November 11, 2008
TechCrunch - It’s Official. Facebook Is Running A Protection Racket On App Developers, November 17, 2008
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